Wanted By The Soldier Bear (Heroes of Shifter Creek 1)

by Clara Moore

  “This is for a service member? You know what, I’d love to give this to you for no charge.”

  “Thanks so much.”

  Taking the three cups Isadora realized that her plan had only one downfall, her dad was going to be pissed if he found out about the coffee grounds.

  She frowned. Maybe the plan wasn’t so great after all.

  She approached her father and step-mother, noticing that Doran stood with them. He looked older and even handsomer than he had before. His hair looked darker and redder than she remembered. There was also something close to a smile on his face. That was new. He actually looked happy to be speaking to his mother.

  Taking a deep breath, she walked over to them. Doran looked up just as she walked up. His smile wavered for a split second as he unconsciously looked her up and down. She couldn’t quite pinpoint the look he was trying not to give her.

  “Ah, there you are, Isadora,” Mario grinned and wrapped his arm around her. “I thought maybe you’d run off.”

  “I thought about it,” she gave a fake smile herself, then handed each of them their coffees. “Welcome back, Doran.”

  “Thank you, Izzy,” he responded, taking the cup from her. “I appreciate you getting me coffee.”

  “You’re very welcome, brother.” She knew she laid the pleasantries on thick. He took a sip of his coffee and swallowed hard. “How is it?”

  “Fine,” he responded. “Well, should we get out of here, huh? I’m starving for some of Mom’s cooking.”

  The parents talked enthusiastically with the returned son, seemingly more than ecstatic to see him. She strayed behind as they all walked together while chatting and laughing. She drank her chai curmudgeonly, taking pleasure every time Doran took a labored drink.

  “I love this coffee,” Doran whispered to his stepsister.

  “So happy, brother,” she responded.

  “I really like the extra kick of grounds in it too.”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  “There were quite a lot of coffee grounds in my coffee. As if someone requested it.”

  “That’s messed up. Maybe you should go back.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” Angela asked, looking back at them with a twinkle in her eye.

  “I was just thanking Izzy for the delicious coffee ,” Doran grinned at his mother. “She wanted to try it,, but I don’t think I can give any of it up.”

  “Oh, Doran. I didn’t teach you to be selfish,” his mother said.

  “That was Dad’s job mom,” Doran replied as coffee almost shot out of Issy’s nose.

  “Share with your sister, ” she instructed.

  “I’m not his…” Isadora started as Doran held the coffee in her face.

  “If the coffee’s really that good,I might want to try it,” Mario said.

  “No, no,” Isadora and Doran said together.

  “I mean, it might not be your style, Dad,” she waved her hand. “You like the sweet hazelnut stuff.”

  “I have been thinking I should try black coffee though because it’s better for you,” her father continued. “Can I try it, Doran?”

  Isadora took the coffee and chugged it, getting a mouthful of grounds and a burnt tongue in the process. She tried to hold back her gags as Doran explained “Izzy selfishly drank it all.” Angela lectured them for being too much like real siblings and bickering like “cats and dogs.” Isadora wanted to say that cats and dogs don’t really fight - cats mostly ignore dogs, who sometimes chase them. But she held her tongue. Mostly, she had to hold in the vomit bubbling up from her stomach.

  She regretted her decision to play a practical joke on her not-brother.

  II.

  “I don’t understand why you hate him,” Fiona, Isadora’s oldest friend, said. “I mean, he was kind of a jerk in high school, but he’s not now. Right?”

  “I don’t know, he’s only been home for a few days,” Isadora responded, spinning around in her chair to show her complete lack of motivation for her work. “He did make me drink a whole lot of coffee grinds, which is pretty evil.”

  “Yeah, except you gave him that coffee with the grounds in it after he came back from serving our country. That’s evil.”

  “Like the time he put a dead frog in my bed? Do you remember that one? Now that’s evil. ”

  “Blah blah. By the way, can I write an article about your brother?”

  “I don’t know why you’d want to.”

  “Cause he just came back from being a Navy SEAL overseas and it’s interesting?”

  “I don’t think it’s that interesting.”

  “He’s also hot. Do you think he’ll let you take pictures of him?”

  “He probably will, but I don’t want to.”

  “Stop being a jerk, Izzy. Come on.”

  Isadora turned back around to her computer, looking at the article she had to edit on the screen.. She did well at the local arts and general cool-things-about-town paper because she could do graphic design, copy-edit and photograph. She didn’t write mainly because she didn’t like people enough to interview them. She’d tried that in college, and it just didn’t work out for her.

  “I don’t know why I hate him so much,” she said, picking up with the conversation. “Maybe because I relate him with my dad remarrying. I never really forgave him for that.”

  “I like when you get really deep when you’re trying to procrastinate on your work. Do you have your brother’s number? I want to call him for the article.”

  “He’s not my brother.” Isadora handed over her cell phone so Fiona could look.

  “Did you know he texted you?” Fiona looked through the phone. “Like a few times?”

  “I’m very busy and important.”

  “Yeah, okay. Maybe I’ll call him from your phone and see what happens.”

  “That’s a stupid idea.”

  Fiona raised Isadora’s phone and waited. Isadora pretended not to notice or care. One of the managing editors, Georgia, walked up right then with an inquisitive frown.

  “Is Fiona making a personal call when she’s on deadline?”

  Fiona just waved her hand in negation, “Hi, Doran. This is Fiona Mattson, Izzy’ friend.” She paused to let Doran say something. “I’m not the one who hasn’t texted you back, but I’ll let her know you’re annoyed,” Fiona said, winking at Izzy.

  “Is Fiona making a personal call for you when she’s on deadline?” Georgia said.

  “She’s going to do a story about my step-brother who just came back from being a Navy SEAL somewhere,” Isadora answered. “She used my phone to call him so he thought it was me.”

  “Everything’s just fine, Doran. But it’s really cute that you were worried about Izzy,” Fiona said. “I was just wondering if I could write an article about you?”

  “Why aren’t you writing this article, Izzy?” Georgia asked.

  “I don’t like him very much,” Izzy said dismissively.

  “No, no, that was someone else who sounds like Dora.” Fiona said into the phone. “She likes you fine.”

  “This all doesn’t make sense to me,” Georgia said, frowning.

  “Me either. I think he’s completely uninteresting,” Izzy said, absently hitting letters on her keyboard.

  Fiona stood up holding the phone away from her face. “You guys are jerks,” she said before walking through the door that led to the upstairs patio.

  “I think I had relevant questions for my reporter,” Georgia said, sighing..

  “I agree,” Isadora nodded.

  “The story sounds good though. It’s a great idea. You should have thought of it.”

  “I try not to talk to my step-brother if I can help it.”

  “If you don’t like your family, why do you still live at home?”

  Isadora frowned now. “I’m saving to buy a house.” Also, she was afraid if she lived alone, she might get murdered. But she figured that was an irrational fear and refused to speak it aloud.

&
nbsp; “I didn’t move out until I met my wife. I was afraid if I lived alone, I’d be murdered.”

  “Really? That’s a strange fear,” Izzy said with a new understanding of her editor.

  , “I watch a lot of horror movies and true crime shows.” Georgia shrugged “Anyway, get on that story. We want to get a proof of the paper out pronto.”

  “Aye, aye, captain.” Isadora saluted her as she left, wondering how one becomes a managing editor anyway. .

  Fiona returned with a curious look in her eye. “I think this story is going to take me a while.”

  “Why is that?” Isadora responded, though she didn’t really care.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Just a hunch. I think there’s something behind whatever he was doing over there.”

  “Seriously doubt it.”

  “Izzy, I don’t have time for your negativity right now,” Fiona said, sitting down in her chair. “I have work to do.”

  Isadora rolled her eyes and went back to work. She quickly finished editing several articles and started doing “research”, which included searching Twitter and reading anything interesting.

  “Hey, Izzy,” a male voice said, taking her out of her Twitter-induced daze.

  She looked up to see Doran’s smiling face, “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I’ve been texting you and you haven’t been replying, so I decided I’d just come down. Is Fiona around too? I thought maybe I’d take you ladies to lunch.”

  “Fiona went out to do a story, I think.”

  “I thought she was doing a story about me.”

  “I think she needed to do more research.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know, Doran. Why are you here?”

  “I think I just told you.”

  “I’m really busy right now, okay? I can’t go to lunch with you.”

  “You’re really busy looking at cats on glass tables?”

  She quickly closed her browser window. “Also with other things.”

  “Come on, Izzy. You’ve been avoiding me since I got back.”

  “Fine. Let me finish up what I’m doing, and we can go.”

  “Okay.” He stood there awkwardly, waiting for her to finish.

  “Can you like… go somewhere else while I finish?” “Where would you like me to go?” He asked. Of course he had her there. There really wasn’t anywhere for him to wait for her except right about where he was standing.

  Frazzled, she just turned off her monitor and crossed her fingers that no one would turn it back on before she got back. How long could this take anyway? Grabbing her purse, she walked away from her cubicle, expecting Doran to follow. On her way out, she poked her head into Georgia’s open office to see Georgia and a tall, dark, and handsome man with glasses leaning over the proof of the next paper.

  “Hey, I’m going to lunch,” Isadora said. “I’ll be back soon.”

  “Dora, can I talk to you about the cover art for this paper when you get back? I have an idea, but it didn’t really work out for me,” the man said, looking up at her with a dazzling smile.

  “Sure, Adam. What did you have in mind?”

  “Well, we’re doing an article about all that graffiti that’s been going on downtown, but the pictures were awful.”

  “So… you want me to take more pictures?”

  “No, I want you to paint graffiti on one of our good pictures of downtown.”

  “I can do that. Let’s talk when I get back.”

  “Maybe we could talk about it over dinner?”

  “Maybe,” she said smiling.

  “You guys are making me sick,” Georgia said with an irritated frown. “Go to lunch already.”

  Isadora grinned and gestured for Doran to follow; instead, he walked into the room and held his hand out to Adam in introduction.

  “Hi, I’m Doran. Izzy’s step-brother.”

  Adam looked up confusedly, but Georgia shook his hand and said, “Oh, hello Doran. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Georgia.”

  “I’m Adam. We’re the managing editors,” Adam, recovering, shook his hand as well.

  “Are you taking Dora to lunch, Doran?”

  “I am, Georgia. I haven’t seen a lot of her since I got back into the country, so I thought I’d take her out. Have you been here long, Alex?”

  “My name is Adam, and yes. Georgia and I have been here since the beginning. Dora came here not long after we started. That’s why she does so much.” Adam winked at her, making her blush. “And so well.”

  “Okay, we are going to go now. I’ll talk to you about the cover when I get back, Adam,” Isadora grabbed Doran’s arm and dragged him to the elevator. She pressed the button manically until it finally opened and pulled him inside. “What was that? Why are you being a jerk to my boss?”

  “I wasn’t…” he tried holding up his hands.

  “You were. You’re acting like a jealous boyfriend. It’s not cute.”

  “I guess I just haven’t had any coffee full of grounds yet today.”

  She held back a chuckle. “The grounds do add a little extra spice.”

  “I do enjoy chewing my drink.”

  “It gives you more energy per capita.”

  “That’s why I like it so much.”

  They shared a smile as the elevator door opened. Together, they moved outside into the sunshine. Isadora shrugged, trying to make her good feelings toward him go away.

  “So, are you and Artie close then?” Doran asked on their way to the restaurant.

  “Who?” she answered, putting fishing around in her purse for her sunglasses..

  “Your boss?”

  “Adam and I get along pretty well, yeah. I’ve had a crush on him since college.” He stopped walking, just staring at her. “What?”

  “Why would you tell me that?”

  “You asked, I answered,” she grabbed his arm to pull him into motion. “I think he likes blondes though. He’s never seemed interested in me.”

  “Well, I think you’re beautiful as you are.” He hooked his arm with hers.

  “Um. OK. Thanks” she said, unhooking her arm. “Is this the place?”

  “This looks like it.” He held the door open for her and gestured inside. “After you, my lady.”

  “Um thanks.”

  She looked behind her suspiciously, watching to make sure he didn’t make any quick moves. The hostess/bartender mixed drinks for two middle-aged men at the bar before seating the them. Besides the men at the bar, no one else sat in the restaurant.

  “This place looks super busy,” Isadora commented sarcastically. “Good choice, Doran.”

  “I’ve heard the food is really good,” he answered and looked up at her with a smile. “I’m glad you came out with me.”

  “Sure,” she read the menu, then set it down. “I’ll get the spaghetti and an Italian coffee.”

  “That was quick!” he laughed.

  “I have to get back to work so…”

  “Right. I forgot about that.” He waved his hand to call over the waitress/hostess/bartender.

  The woman walked over slowly, seemingly annoyed that she had to actually work. Doran ordered for them and gave the woman a winning smile. She wrote down their order, took their menus, and slumped away. The restaurant looked like the kind of place a mob boss would hang out in. Isadora itched with unease - something seemed off about the whole thing.

  She looked across the table at Doran, who examined the whole room. His stubble appeared thicker since he arrived, making him somehow look more handsome. She’d never noticed how his eyes could look a cool blue and light green at the same time (of course, she’d never spent much time looking into his eyes.) His V-neck white t-shirt showed how the military had done his body good - he looked both leaner and more muscular than before he left.

  “Maybe we should get the food to go. I have to get back to work,” Isadora said, feeling uncomfortable from the environment and from checking out the step-brother she
hated.

  “We haven’t been here that long,” he replied with a slightly hurt look in his eyes.

  “I only get a half hour usually. It’s okay if I stay a little longer, but then I have to stay longer after work.” She placed her hand on his. “Sorry, Doran.”

  He smiled, “It’s okay. I’m happy we did get some time together. Let me go talk to the waitress about our food.”

  He rubbed her hand before getting up to talk to the waitress. His black pants hugged his long legs perfectly, but didn’t cling too tightly. His gait gained a more mature confidence than the arrogant jerk arrogance he had as a teenager - he looked cool, calm, and collected now, as if he never could’ve been that boy who once lit a Christmas tree park on fire for “solidarity.” If she didn’t know him, she would consider flirting with him; unfortunately, she knew him well.

  He returned after what Isadora considered a lengthier conversation than necessary with the waitress. “All right, she’s bringing the food to go.”

  “Is that what you were talking to her for so long about?” she asked, raising her eyebrow..

  “Oh, who’s the jealous boyfriend now?” he said smiling.

  She rolled her eyes. “Probably one of the guys at the bar. I saw one of them check you out.”

  He looked toward the bar, “I guess I could do worse.”

  She chuckled, not wanting to give him too much enjoyment. The waitress returned with an unfamiliar look in her eye that Isadora could’ve sworn resembled fear. The woman said nothing as she handed the bag of food over. Doran smiled and thanked her.

  “Why don’t you wait outside,” he said softly to Isadora. “I’ll be right out.”

  She shrugged and walked outside. For some reason, a deep feeling of foreboding followed her out the door and waited with her outside.

  RING RING, RING RING. Was her phone always that loud? She almost dropped it pulling it out of her purse, her hands were shaking now. .

  “Hello?” she asked.

  “When are you coming back?” Fiona snapped. “I need you for pictures.”

  “We’re heading back soon. Doran insisted we go to this creepy Italian restaurant, Roselli’s.”

  “That place is creepy. I’ve heard they’ve been making concrete shoes on the side, if you know what I mean.”